Tear away light emulating light reflecting safety vest/poncho

ABSTRACT

A tear away light emulating—light reflective safety vest/poncho with self contained battery pack. Vest/Poncho utilizes electrical carrying magnets/snaps/catches or any separatable device that has the ability to transfer and conduct electricity to other panels of a vest/poncho to energize the light emulating articles/devices such as LED lights, Fiber Optics and glowing materials to allow for tear away sections without the destruction of the vest/poncho. Front and back of vest has indicia that differentiates one from the other.

This application claims priority to provisional patent application No.61/342,285 filed Apr. 9, 2010

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to the field of safety vests/ponchos for theconstruction, police, fire rescue, sport and any endeavor that wouldrequire the ability to garner attention either at night or even duringthe day for safety purposes. This invention relates to a tear awayvest/poncho that can be ripped away from the person's body withoutdragging them should they get caught on a moving vehicle or anyequipment that could catch the vest/poncho and pull the wearer into aharmful situation. This invention relates to a tear away vest/ponchowith LED lights. This invention relates to the ability to transferelectricity for the LED lights across this tear away section and toother panels of the vest/poncho without the use of hard wiring.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Currently there are many high visibility safety vest/poncho's in themarketplace. The majority of these vests are made of a nylon materialwith some reflective cloth sewn into the vest. The object of these vestsis to catch the light from a vehicle's headlights and become much morevisible due to the reaction of the reflective cloth. The problem is theyare only more highly visible when the headlights hit them. There aresituations when the angle of the headlights or if it is a motorcyclethat the beams are not in the optimum position to reflect the cloth.When this happens the driver of these vehicles may not have enough timeto respond or maneuver his vehicle out of the way. With the advent ofLED & fiber optic lighting it is now possible to wear light emulatingarticles/devices upon the vest/poncho and have a much longer viewingrange than that of just reflector cloth. By having light emulatingarticles/devices you now need wiring and electricity to energize them,this causes a problem for the tear away vest/poncho because you wouldneed wiring to go around the vest/poncho to multiple panels to light thelight emulating articles/devices.

The present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed aboveand other problems, and to provide advantages and aspects not providedby prior safety vest/poncho's of this type. A full discussion of thefeatures and advantages of the present invention is deferred to thefollowing detailed description, which proceeds with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention solves all the problems of the prior method bycombining light sensitive reflective material and light emulatingarticles/devices.

-   In an embodiment the vest/poncho has hook and loop tear away areas.-   In an embodiment the vest/poncho has a pocket for signage of person    using it.-   In an embodiment the vest/poncho has magnets/snaps or other catches    that are capable of transferring electricity through it to power    light emulating articles/devices.-   In an embodiment the vest/poncho has a battery power supply.-   In an embodiment the vest/poncho has a high visibility mesh material    for part of its material.-   In an embodiment the vest/poncho has light emulating    articles/devices that either blink or have a constant glow.-   In an embodiment the vest/poncho has indicia on both the front and    back, this indicia is distinctively different from each other so one    could easily tell them apart and determine if a person wearing this    vest/poncho was facing them or their back was to them.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing specification taken in conjunction with the followingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To understand the present invention, it will now be described by way ofexample, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which;

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the invention showing a front view. Thisview shows the hook and loop straps at various tear away sections andlight emulating articles/devices going from top to bottom. This viewshows a pocket in the center of the vest to slide in a name say likePOLICE. This front area could also have indicia on it that could beglowing or blinking.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the invention showing a back view withthe light emulating articles/devices going from top to bottom. This viewshows tear away area's at the top. This view shows a pocket in thecenter of the vest to slide in a name plate in say like “POLICE”. Thisback area could also have indicia on it that could be glowing orblinking.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the invention showing the tear away areaat the top with the electrical magnets exposed. This view shows abattery pack on the inside at the front of the vest/poncho.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a close up of the electrical conductingtear away magnets.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

While this invention is susceptible of embodiments in many differentforms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described indetail preferred embodiments of the invention with the understandingthat the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification ofthe principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the broadaspect of the invention to the embodiments illustrated.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, in one embodiment of the present inventionshows a front view of the tear away sections 101, 102,103,104 of asafety vest/poncho. The purpose of a tear away vest/poncho is to allowthis article to be tore away if it were accidently caught onto a movingvehicle or machinery without dragging the person with it. These tearaway sections 101,102,103,104 utilizes a hook and loop method ofattachment. In the front center 130 is a clear pocket for slipping in anameplate to identify the user, for example “POLICE”. Light emulatingarticles/devices such as LED lights or fiber optics or glowing material110 are embedded in a light reflector cloth 120 and placed about theexterior of the vest/poncho for a light emulating high visibilityindicator. Light emulating articles/devices such as LED lights, fiberoptics or glowing material 110 are embedded in strips of reflectivecloth 120 for even higher visibility and in case the battery pack 320runs out of energy one would still have a reflective ability. The body140 of the vest/poncho is a high visibility mesh material to be seen andremain cool in the warmer weather. A horizontal reflective cloth strip150 wraps around the waist area of the vest/poncho. In the middle of thefront of the vest/poncho 160 is where the indicia would be placed forexample a circle, this circle could be glowing or blinking with thelight emulating articles/devices.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe present invention, shows the backside of the vest/poncho. Indicia260 in the middle center is placed in clear view, in this example a X isused. This indicia on the back is distinctively different from the frontindicia 160 showing an O. These indicia can be glowing or blinking fromthe light emulating articles/devices to be easily distinguished betweenthe front and back of the vest.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe present invention, shows tear away sections 101, 102 exposing theelectrical conducting magnets 310. These electrical conductingmagnets/snaps/catches 310 are located on both shoulders under the tearaway sections 101, 102. When tore apart the magnets/snaps/catches 310release from each other and therefore do not ruin the vest/poncho whenbeing tore away. These electrically conducting magnets/snaps/catches 310allow for tear away sections 101, 102, with a light emulatingvest/poncho FIG. 1 where the electricity needs to continue and travel tothe next section or panels 140, 210 of the vest/poncho. With aconventional light emulating vest/poncho that is continuously wiredwithout interruption this could not be achieved because of the wiringpassing through the tear away sections, the continuation of the wiringthrough these sections would negate the ability to be tear away. Theseelectrically conducting magnets/snaps/catches 310 allow for the frontpanel 140 of the vest/poncho to be torn away and separated from the backpanel 210 with no resistance. In a modified design a vest/poncho couldhave more than one tear away panel. A battery pack/control module 320 islocated on the inside front part of the vest/poncho.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe present invention, shows a close up of the tear away section 101exposing the electrically conducting magnets 310.

While the specific embodiments have been illustrated and described,numerous modifications come to mind without significantly departing fromthe spirit of the invention and the scope of protection is only limitedby the scope of the accompanying Claims.

1. A safety vest comprising: a front panel; a rear panel attached to thefront panel at a tear away section provided by a shoulder strap & hipstrap; light emulating devices embedded in the front and rear panels;strips of reflective cloth disposed on the front and rear panels inassociation with the light emulating devices; a power source attached tothe vest and powering the light emulating devices a first indiciaprovided by the front panel and a second indicia provided on the backpanel being distinctively different from the front panel indicia; and atear away section exposing an electrical conducting magnet located on ashoulder strap under the tear away section.